Stefan Sagmeister: Everybody always thinks they are right:

Interesting video by Hillman Curtis here.

Joshua Allen Harris' Air Bear, streets of New York:

Inflatable churches

Architecture:

Design Observer has an interesting article about the history of trade magazine design, inspired by Pentagram's redesign of Dairy Today.

From French designer and photographer Fabien Barral comes an archive of print material and portfolio links.

This is a project I have designed for many years. It is a wonderful nonprofit, independent publication full of great visuals and interesting text. Issue 16 (the best one yet!) has cover art by Marc Johns and illustrations/art by as Katie Radke, Byron Eggenschwiler, Gordon Wiebe, Stefan Thompson and James Mejia plus photographs from 3191: a year of mornings by Stephanie Congdon Barnes and Maria (Mav) Vettese. There are articles on film, music, coffee, libraries, books and all things small. The article on “The Small Art Revolution” covers artists and projects such as Thumbtack Press, The Small Object, Little Otsu, Etsy and many more. You can see more images from the magazine here and purchase or subscribe to Beyond here.

 

"Idea generation is an addiction...an engaging, brain-spinning indulgence that must be practiced in moderation." 

This statement is from the Behance's article which cautions on the intoxicating side-effect of idea generation. "New ideas have the potential to transform your life in wonderful ways, but they are also the most notorious source of distraction. Frustrated entrepreneurs and struggling creatives often trace back their problems to a moment when they decided to pursue too many things at once." This certainly rings true for me! Over the past three years, I have opened UPPERCASE, curated a few dozen gallery exhibitions, designed a line of wholesale greeting cards, made hundreds of handmade papergoods, launched an online store and published a book. All the while, I have continued to maintain my graphic design business. I admit that this is quite a lot to manage and though it has been exhilarating, it is also exhausting.

The arrival of a new year always brings about contemplation and resolutions. Leading up to 2008, I had been looking forward to putting more focus on my creative and business endeavours. UPPERCASE gallery, books & papergoods has developed into a bigger project than I could have possibly imagined when it first began. It its infancy, I thought it would be a small bookstore — a companion to complement my graphic design studio. It quickly became an outlet for my creativity. If I had an idea for a product, I could simply create it and see an immediate response from my customers. UPPERCASE allows me to conceptualize all aspects of a project — from concept to production to marketing to distribution. It truly uses all aspects of my creative thinking and I find this very fulfilling and enjoyable. Although working for clients has its rewards, it is so much more satisfying to have full ownership of an idea and its design.

Over the past year, the balance of my business shifted from Vangool Design to UPPERCASE as I began to devote increasing amounts of my time to the store. The success of The Shatner Show in terms of the quality of participants, press and other attention, was phenomenal and was a definite turning point. It put my small enterprise (pun intended) on the map. Although the show and book have just broken even at this point, with proper distribution now in place I hope to make enough to eventually fund another book.

My current self-directed publication project is Work/Life: the UPPERCASE Directory of Canadian Illustration & Photography. The intention of this publication is to promote Canadian talent to the best clients across North America. Participants pay a reasonable fee to be in the book and this, along with some sponsors, will cover the production and distribution costs. Some incredibly talented people have signed up! Necessarily, I have had to decline a lot of client work in order to have time to dedicate to Work/Life. After a decade of freelancing, it is against my nature to turn down a job — but now it has become a necessity to do so. I regret the inconvenience this will cause to some of my clients, but I know they will wish me well. I won't be turning absolutely everything down: I will focus on my love of publication design and special arts/culture projects, plus I remain open to any amazing unforeseen opportunities might come my way.

I'm looking forward to the year ahead, intoxicated with the possibilities!

I just read on Design*Sponge that Blueprint magazine is folding. Confirmed by the reaper on Magazine Death Pool. It seems hard to believe that a magazine with a circulation of 268,000 and leveraged by Martha Stewart and her brands cannot be sustained.

Going forward, the company will produce Blueprint as focused special interest issues within the home category, which it will introduce to brides-to-be through its established Martha Stewart Weddings magazine. Bluelines, the Blueprint blog, will continue and the company anticipates growing Blueprint digital content across its websites. Blueprint magazine will discontinue publishing on a stand-alone basis after the January/February 2008 issue.

They better spruce up that Bluelines blog, then, because it has always been the weekest link in the Blueprint brand. The quality of the images posted there is always lacking.

"We are constantly evaluating the best ways to position and grow our brands. Weddings and Blueprint appeal to women at a similar life stage and we believe this strategy will allow us to better leverage the synergistic relationship between the two publications," said Susan Lyne, President and CEO of MSLO. "By publishing Blueprint in a special interest format, we can provide newlyweds with useful ideas and inspiration for their homes; and advertisers with a targeted platform to reach this highly desirable consumer."

Thats a very antiquated notion that women must be getting married or recently married to be interested in decorating their homes. (I purchased my home without a guy in sight!)

"We thank Editor-in-Chief Sarah Humphreys, Design Director Deb Bishop, Publisher Amy Wilkins, and the entire Blueprint team for all the hard work, talent and passion they brought to this start-up," added Lyne. "We look forward to working with Sarah, Deb, Amy and other members of the Blueprint team on the new special interest issues and other company endeavors. We expect Blueprint's new format and the expansion of Weddings will position us well in a dynamic, multimedia marketplace."

At least they are keeping this talented team (hopefully not too many will lose their jobs). I've always admired Deb Bishop's work. (She attended the Alberta College of Art & Design before me.)

Blueprint is the only magazine I subscribe to. I liked it enough to show my support that way, rather than purchasing it on newstands. I hope they refund that two-year subscription I just renewed!

Here are some interpretations of the classic Christmas tree to inspire your decorating from Frank Visser of IJM Studio (via SwissMiss). The photo styling on this site is absolutely stunning! Highly recommended viewing.

Steven Heller is the most prolific design writer... ever. He has writen a few bookshelves-worth of books, and contributed to countless magazines such as Print, Eye and ID. He was the art director of the New York Times for over 30 years and taught at the School of Visual Arts for more than two decades. His critiques have influence, his research builds much-needed historical context for graphic design, and his books promote design intelligence.

I often wonder how people who seem to produce so much manage to do it. The answer? Heller gets up at 4am. And there still aren't enough hours in the day.

In an interview with Gothamist, Heller discusses working with illustrators. This is of particular interest to me because the next UPPERCASE book, Work / Life will be investigating the relationship between illustrators/photographers and their clients. (more details will be posted soon!)

When I looked for illustrators, I looked for someone who fit the criteria of being extension of myself. I dreamed of being an illustrator but couldn’t because I didn’t have talent to do it, even though I did do it in the early days of my career. I looked for someone who has authorship. A person or persons I would hire had to be able to speak a language on a mass level, but one that wasn’t clichéd and could take the common and make it uncommon. The people I ended up using a lot are those people who had that ability. There are those always those people who can’t do it. People I could would try to groom, but in the end wasn’t able to.

SVA is currently hosting a retrospective exhibition of Heller's career. Visit his website, too. The man has so many books that they need to presented in alphabetical categories.

I'd like to live inside the head of Gal Shkedi based on his graduation project for the graphic design department at Shenkar college of engineering and design in Israel. The animated video is set to the Tom Waits & Kathleen Brennan song "Starving in the belly of a whale". View the full video here.

Is it possible to be in love with a book?

Yes.

Taking Things Seriously: 75 Objects with Unexpected Significance is the object of my affections. First of all, the cover photograph is stunning. The book's modest dimensions make the act of reading a very intimate affair. The perfect binding and crisp, precise page trim lend this little block of book importance and heft. The page design is simple and elegant and lets the personality of the objects be fully appreciated, elevating the most mundane to that of a museum artifact. Taking Things Seriously presents a curious mix of items with personal significance to its owners: dirt piles, an ugly Santa, childhood toys, bizarre gifts, found objects... with the right circumstances, an ordinary object can have extraordinary significance. The contributors to this book are creative individuals (designers, writers, artists, architects) and all the entries are equally well-written, humourous, insightful and quirky.

This book is something to treasure.

(copies are available in UPPERCASE for $21.95... and soon will be available on our online store: launching very soon!)